Corinthian Colleges to sell 85 U.S. campuses and close 12 under new agreement

One of the greatest-ever collapses in the for-profit career college sector continued late Thursday night with a shutdown deal between Corinthian Colleges Inc. and the U.S. Department of Education that generally promises full reimbursement for eligible students.

Corinthian will have to stop enrolling students at schools it plans to close and it must disclose the status of each campus to current and prospective students, according to the agreement.

The company plans to sell 85 of its 97 U.S. schools. The remaining 12 will be closed. The list of schools to be sold and those to close was not released with the agreement.

FILE - In this June 30, 2009 file photo, Larry Wostenberg teaches an engine management systems class at the WyoTech technical school campus in Laramie, Wyo. Corinthian Colleges Inc., the company that runs Everest, Heald and WyoTech colleges with about 75,000 students enrolled nationwide, on Thursday, June 19, 2014 said it s in danger of shutting down. (AP Photo/Mead Gruver, file)
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Until last month, the company had withstood numerous investigations by federal agencies and states, including California, into allegations it falsified records and deceived prospective students to get them -- and their federal grants and loans -- in the door.

Corinthian's luck ran out in June when the education department put a 21-day freeze on its federal student aid money, saying "the company failed to address concerns about its practices.''

Days later, the department agreed to release $16 million in exchange for a deal ensuring a shutdown that would minimize students' disruption. The original deadline was Tuesday night.

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The education department agreed to release another $35 million in federal student aid to the company to be used exclusively to help students complete their programs if they choose to do so after being fully informed of their options.

All spending will need to be approved by the department and an independent monitor will have access to all of the colleges' records and transition plans.

The California-based career college giant owns Heald, Everest and WyoTech career colleges, which have 107 campuses in the United States and Canada and more than 70,000 students, about one-third of them in California.

The company has said it plans to sell all 12 of its Heald campuses, but it has yet to find any buyers. The agreement set a time limit to get that done.

The company is for-profit and publicly traded, but most of its revenue comes from federal student aid -- $1.4 billion a year in taxpayer-funded grants and loans, according to the education department.

Its demise, though considered long overdue by consumer advocates and disenchanted former students, has implications for students and taxpayers.

Students at closed schools can have their federal loans discharged if they don't complete their programs at another institution through a "teach-out" agreement arranged by Corinthian. Typically, credits from a for-profit institution won't transfer to a community college or a university.

Those enrolled between June 22 and July 8 will be entitled to a full refund.

The department said it would closely watch how the company spends its last federal dollars.

"Corinthian will not use federal funding to pay dividends, legal settlements of lawsuits or investigations, or debt repayments," it said. It also noted that "bonuses, severance payments, raises and retention agreements" must be reported to an independent monitor and are subject to the department's approval.

Many students leave Corinthian and other expensive trade schools with an overwhelming debt load and poor job prospects. An analysis by this newspaper last fall showed former students at for-profit institutions -- about 10 percent of all college students -- accounted for half of all of the student-loan defaults in the Bay Area, suggesting they didn't earn enough to make their debt payments.

"We have accepted an operating plan for Corinthian Colleges Inc. that will protect students' futures and fulfill the Department's responsibilities to taxpayers moving forward," U.S. Education Under Secretary Ted Mitchell said.